Chapter 37: 37: The Takeover.

How much time has passed with you in your thoughts? You keep bringing up your status bar and watch the energy levels rise. Just when you gain a single point of energy you begin counting in your head. One, one-thousand, two, one-thousand, three, one-thousand... You keep this up until you reach thirty. That’s when you gain another energy point.

Roughly two per minute, huh? Simple math indicates that at your current energy regeneration you have twenty minutes of down-time between each cast of [Summon Imps]. Putting another point into [Summon Duration Trait] is quite tempting the moment you get a chance, though it will leave you woefully lacking in other areas.

But even though you spend a lot of time checking your status bar, not unlike watching the time pass on the clock, you make sure to keep an eye on your new trio of subordinates. The naked woman just lies on the floor, her sobbing has subsided. You were concerned for a moment that she might fall ill, but, since you could heal her straight away if needed, her potentially getting sick is another bargaining chip against her, instead of it being a real concern for you.

As for the other two, you could probably bury them in [Hellfruits] by now, but no reason to waste energy when their allegiance is still suspect. Instead of that, you’re ready to blast them in the face with [Shadow Bolt] should they try something funny.

Eventually though, your energy is restored and, with no one else appearing, you call back Alpha and Gamma before unlocking the first door with the prisoners. With 11 people to go through and then even more down in the catacombs you would prefer not to waste your energy on the summons again.

“Alpha, if anyone tries to attack us, stab him in the gut,” you say to the bunny girl. If any of them are dead by now, then they’re too weak to be of use to me anyway, you think as you open the door.

You see four bodies on the floor. You look at Gamma and say, “Check if they’re still alive.”

Gamma goes through them one by one, placing her hand to their noses to feel if they’re breathing.

“Yeah, they’re alive,” She says after checking the fourth man, slowly bleeding from both his legs. Walking up closer you recognize the many stab wounds—a trademark of your loyal, giggling summons.

“Alright, let’s get started,” you say and sigh, realizing how many times you’ll have to go through the same thing. You kneel at the body of the young man, open his eyes and cast [Submission]…

You feel like an eternity has passed by the time you’re done with all eleven of them.

[Congratulations! Spell [Submission] is now level 3!]

You received this message on your tenth submission here. That’s not much of an indicator of how many spells it would take to reach level 4, and you dread to count how many times you’ve cast this spell today already.

[Submission - lvl 3
Energy cost: 30
Attacks the mind of a single target, making it more willing to follow your commands.]

Nothing has changed in the description apart from the level and energy cost increase. Between [Submissions] and [Hellfruits] You’ve spent your entire energy supply again and only managed to have enough simply due to regenerating it passively while you worked. This will get out of hand eventually if I don't come upon a "mass submission" or something like that.

You’re mentally exhausted and yet you still have so much to do. Yesterday felt long, but today seems to drag forever. You’ve never been this productive in a single day your entire life. You feel like patting yourself on the back.

It’s only when you walk by the naked woman for something like the fifth time you realize that you’re not even getting hard at the sight of the healthy woman’s body. So, this is what stress and mental fatigue do to a body? You hope that this is not a permanent issue. Not that you don't have ways to fix it should there be a problem.

“Find something to cover her up,” you say in the general direction of what is now your crew. Then you look at Elza and summon a [Hellfruit] for her.

“Here,” you say and pass her the healing item. Since you’ve handed these out to the others, why not to her as well?

“Thank you,” she seems grateful enough and eats the fruit.

“Alright, let’s go,” you say and guide your increased party down to the catacombs.

All the way down you don’t encounter a single soul. Not even footsteps in the distance. Dead silence apart from your crew’s footsteps and the burning of the fire on the torches they’ve picked up from the walls.

When you reach the dark and damp catacombs you find your captives. The seven dressed and armed eunuchs guard the other men and women who are lying naked in a pool of water, completely passed out.

Alpha, Gamma… Two. Five. Nine. Sixteen. Plus seven—you count your minions and then count the unconscious bodies. Even at a glance, it is obvious that carrying them out of here would completely disrupt your fighting potential. However, considering how many hours it would take to regenerate your energy enough to cast [Submission] on every single one of them, you decide to try a different approach.

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“Wake them up!” You command the eunuchs. I should get them a fitting unifying attire. With a theme of—you again feel a sting as you remember a person who could probably do such a thing.

With the naked captives awoken one by one, you’re relieved to see that they are apparently not single-mindedly obsessed with a fucking anymore.

“Listen up!” You speak up looking at the captives, but the speech is meant for everyone. “Judging by what I’ve seen so far, the previous owner of this place—the man who held you captive, humiliated and boiled both men and women alive—was a bit of a cunt. Hence, I’ve banished him from here. Forever!

All that I require from you is to follow me as we clear out this nightmarish fortress and make sure not a single person remains here who still loyal to the psycho bunny man. Those of you, who choose to stay with me after that, will be aptly rewarded. And, I will say this once, I will not permit any infighting or assault between any who choose to follow me. Sexual or otherwise. If both partners are willing, I don’t care and you can do whatever…”

You feel the train of thought in your speech taper off toward the end so you just stop talking before you embarrass yourself. You’re really feeling the limits of how much you can handle in a day. Taking a breath and collecting yourself you say a single line, “Those who do not wish to join me, raise their hand.”

You hold back from smirking that you managed at least that much. If you asked who wants to leave and be free, some might have spoken up or raised their hands. However, the question is essentially “who is against me?”. And who among these beaten, abused and tired men and women would be courageous enough to stand out from the pack first? There are none.

“We’re going to need a lot of clothes,” you say to Hercule standing next to you, who still is the biggest man around, so you feel he is well-chosen for his role as a meat shield.

“There should be some in one of the storages, past the mess hall,” he says to you.

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” you say and lead your ever-increasing band back up. It’s getting increasingly harder to bend your knees as you walk up the stairs. You’ve been on your feet this entire time. When was the last time you’ve walked so much? Have you ever? You can’t recall.

“Alpha, stay close, and remember my orders,” you say to the petite, rapier wielding battle bunny. Despite the complete destruction of her personality, she still has impressive reflexes. “Gamma, stay close to the “catacomb” group. Keep them safe and lead them back to me if we split up.”

And you will have to split up to cover more ground. However, on your way to the mess hall, you again encounter no one. Even at the storage, there is no one. With each minute of you going through the fortress, it becomes increasingly apparent that it has been abandoned.

“Could the others have really just run away?” you ask Alpha.

“Very few here were friends,” she says.

“Friends? Ha!” Elza speaks up. “Most are lowlifes used to looting, killing and raping. It’s only fun when you’re on the winning side. Chi disappeared, now Xi is gone and I won’t even count how many dozens you’ve killed. Who would stay and why? Also, where is Chi? With these two here, I keep expecting her to show up—”

“That’s none of your concern!” You interrupt her loudly and your voice echoes through the empty halls. You look at Alpha. You don’t see any reaction from her.

Still wanting to make sure, you split up as you search the halls and slowly creep toward the exit out of the mountain fortress. Around an hour passes when your group reunites just a couple hundred feet from the outer gates. Having not encountered a single straggler you proceed further.

The gates are open, but there is no blinding sunlight. You see stars in the night sky as you walk out of the mountain and into the enclosed area, surrounded in a circle by a wooden stockade. In the center, you see a pile of bloodied corpses, surrounded by small, furry birds.

“Troglodytes!” Elza shouts and gets in a stance to fight.

“Wait!” you say and see a familiar one fly up to you. It’s covered in scars and looks at about as pompously as a bird can manage.

“Pythia requests for your presence,” the small bird speaks with the voice of an old chain-smoker.

“You can talk?” you don’t hide your surprise.

“Oh, course I can! I understand what you’re saying, don’t I?” Twinkle says as if it’s an insult to assume otherwise. “Now, less chatting and more moving to meet Pythia!”

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